Bicycle chuck

I thought I saw Chuck D cycling around my neighbourhood yesterday. The bike was pretty ratty and he had an Argos carrier bag hanging off one handle, both of which seemed a little out of place. I mean, what would Chuck D be doing riding a knackered old mountain bike, let alone shopping at Argos? Never-the-less, I could have sworn it was him; all in black, leather jacket and shades, baseball cap pulled down low. I do hope he's moved to east Ipswich, I wouldn't mind having him as a neighbour. He doesn't drink or do drugs, has a good moral perspective if you can forgive his admiration of Farrakhan and OK, he might bring the noise occasionally but, y'know, we could have worked it out. I did think about inviting him over to help me with my rhyming couplets but it looked like his Argos bag weighed a ton.

Flea Circus

New mix of Flea Circus is available as download from Pindown's MySpace page ahead of its release on the 'The Ugly Truth About Ipswich' compilation.

McJunk is 100

100th piece added to McJunk today.

Action samples

Lomo Action Sampler set added to Dubdog@flickr.

Lomo calling

Call for lomographers participation in Ip-Art 2008.

A Sound System (Version)

Two years behind the rest of the country, I've been listening to a lot of Dubstep recently so thought it was only appropriate to update my Sound System.

That's Entertainment

Above - drunken scrawls on the back of a flyer written while watching a Jam tribute band last night.

I thought they were pretty good, despite the fact I usually avoid tribute bands like the plague, but this was a spur of the moment decision after a surprise visit from an old friend. The drummer did a fair rendition of Funeral Pyre which was always going to be my benchmark.

Some of my drunken thoughts while watching the band:
Are they going to split mid set and come back after an interval as the Style Council?
David Watts - a tribute band playing a tribute band!
Does one of them restore furniture as a day job?
Both 'Paul' and 'Bruce' had Paul haircuts - do they toss a coin before each gig to see who's going to play at being Paul?
Does one of their father's manage them and drive them to gigs?

Quotes from the stage:
After playing some of the more obscure album tracks..."I am aware that some of you don't know these songs, but I suppose that's not our fault, is it?"
Midway through set..."We're going to do some songs now from a long time ago." !!!

Despite the fact I do not go out of my way to see tribute bands, this is the third Jam tribute I've seen. The last time I saw one, after the gig someone said to me "They were good, weren't they." I had to point out that they did have the benefit of someone else writing the songs for them! Tribute bands are a bizarre phenomenon but not as bizarre as the audiences that go and see them. They get so worked up, mouthing every word, reliving a little bit of their past to what amounts to little more than a well rehearsed group of over zealous session musicians.

And so, with all the pathos that Paul could have mustered, let's all sing...
See a tribute band and punch the air
The comfort of predictability and lots of cheep beer
now That's Entertainment,
That's Entertainment,
tra lalalalala la la.